The Prague PX-50 index lost 0.54% to 424.20 points on Thursday. Philip Morris CR, formerly known as Tabak, led decliners as investors obviously felt that the USD 3 bil. in punitive damages awarded yesterday to a long-term smoker in a civil lawsuit against Philip Morris Companies in the US could harm the profits of the Czech operation. We do not think so and therefore we are buying the stock. Cesky telecom lost 1.20% to CZK 353 with only 198,131 shares traded. We expect the market to be stronger today after upbeat earnings expectations in the US yesterday, but we still expect volumes to remain low. Total volume yesterday reached USD 8.86 mil.
(Milan Procházka)